City Power’s swarm of bees
NORTHWOLD - Swarm of bees not removed despite City Power's promise.
A swarm of bees still live in an electricity box in Northwold, despite City Power’s promise to remove them a month ago.
The electric meter box in Tony Place, records the electricity consumption of Henry Brown (70) and his neighbour. But, it has not been read since the bees made a hive in it, in September last year. In one of the past seven months, the estimation of electricity consumption for Brown and his neighbour was billed at R50 000, each.
Brown contacted City Power in February, and he was informed that although the issue was technical and not an electrical one, they would remove the bees.
After waiting for a month, Brown contacted the Randburg Sun, which then asked City Power spokesperson Sol Masolo, about the situation.
Masolo responded by saying, sometimes City Power deals with problems like these and would hire a company to remove the bees.
After another month of waiting, Brown is now angry. “They have not done anything, I think this is disgusting,” he said.
“It is dangerous, what if someone is stung who is allergic?”
To date, only Brown’s grand daughter has been stung, while swimming in their pool. Since then, Brown and his wife Madalene, have not allowed anyone to swim without their supervision.
Brown added that he could not afford to hire a beekeeper to remove the bees. He further argued that, the meter box is outside his property, therefore, City Power should resolve the issue. Masolo did not respond by the time of going to print. Ward 101 Councillor Ralf Bittkau agreed that it was City Power’s responsibility to remove the bees. Bittkau promised to follow up on the issue.
In March, Masolo explained that City Power estimates electricity bills based on the average consumption over the preceding 12 months. Therefore, with Brown’s bills being estimated for the last seven months, how does City Power accurately estimate his bills now, because the past bills are already based on those estimates?
Details: City Power 011 375 5555; Ward 101 Councillor Ralf Bittkau 084 572 4002.
